


When We Were Young

by fffan201



Category: Take That (Band)
Genre: Enemies, Friendship, Gary Barlow - Freeform, Hurt/Comfort, Mark Owen - Freeform, School, Take That - Freeform, Teenager, robbie williams - Freeform, tt3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-06-27 04:51:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19783624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fffan201/pseuds/fffan201
Summary: This is a Take That Teenager FF, but only with Gary, Mark and Robbie. The three still go to school and are thus together in a class. A fan fiction, which not only brings about everyday and school problems but also private ones - which for a very specific boy, hopefully soon will change.





	1. Prolog – I Walk Around These Empty Streets

_Learn From Every Lesson_  
_Face The Lonely Fear_  
_Imagine That The Tightrope Was Here_  
_There’s Angels In The Silence_  
_The Taste Of Your Own Tears_  
_Is Cold_  
_Everybody Needs A Little Hope_

It was a lukewarm summer evening, and the last hours of the school holidays were increasingly toward the end. The cloudless sky over England shone in the most beautiful blue he had to offer while the sun was sending her warm rays to the earth in the last few hours. The birds chirping flew through the area and gave the evening a harmonious ending. However, what was sometimes disturbed at the height of thirty-nine thousand feet by a preceding airplane, thus causing a feeling of wanderlust. Some people also thought of being somewhere else than they actually were at that moment. 

A boy who’s was about fourteen years old at that moment thoughtlessly walked down a dirt road and did not seem to notice the peaceful harmony at all. A boy who was about fourteen years old at that moment thoughtlessly descended a dirt road and did not perceive the peaceful harmony at all. He did not make a happy impression with his hands in his trouser pockets and his repulsive posture. Even his outfit did not make him appear better. Rather quite the opposite, for this still underlined its dissatisfaction in the whole. The worn and at least one number too big Trousers, was still held up by a yellowed belt, the belt on the last hole was used. Even the upper part had many quirks. Fissured neckline and sleeves, holes, faded color and as well as the pants, it was around the one two numbers too big. Likewise, the shoes had already experienced better times. His whole appearance brought one to think. So no one knew how to approach or respond. Some would even think that he could be a homeless and who would want to give himself up with such a person? No one will.

He also knew too well that his style was not exactly good. But what should he do about it? He had no money to get something new. He didn’t even get a pocket money from his parents. Not even a single cent. To earn some money by the way, he helped out in a bar on the weekends. Although he didn’t get much, it was at least a small start and tried as well as he could save something. But he was mostly blank in the middle or when he was lucky at the end of the week. It was to despair.

With horror he had to think about tomorrow's day when the horrible school day began again. He had never really liked the school. In almost all subjects he stood dangerously on the dump. With the exception of one subject, he had either got a D or E and had just done his transfer. Aside from his bad score, the school was a place of horror for him. There was hardly a pause, where he was sometimes not annoyed, ridiculed and even beaten. When he came home from the school with a blue eye, he was immediately despised by his parents that he should not be beaten. Meanwhile he had given up defending himself. It didn’t come anyway. Even from his older brother, he did not even get the slightest support. Why should he? This was just the darling of his parents and they let him go through everything, no matter what he did. Instead, he got unjustly all the scoundrels, where one or the other a slap in his face had already become almost self-evident.

In order to leave everything behind, he often played with the idea of running away. Somewhere where’s he didn’t have to deal with such problems. Once, he had really run away from home, but his parents could somehow find him and get him back. As a punishment, he was locked up in his room and did not get anything to eat. Communicated was only by means of a sheet that was pushed under the door. Since he did not want to go through it again, he thought twice before he did it again. There was no escaping. His hopes were that at eighteen he could break out of this personal prison and finally get his freedom. But that still lasted for the three or four years and until then he had to be patient. ...Even if it will not be easy.

After the sun had passed her daily lap and thus tried her luck on the other side of the world, the night broke quite fast across the country. As the darkness unfolded from the east, a silvery crescent moon arose, which attracted everyone in its mystical spell. As the darkness grew, so too did the heat dissipate slowly, and the surrounding air cooled down to a mild, more comfortable temperature than had been the case during the day. For England it was an unusually hot summer, where there was not even a single rainy day. A few days ago there had been a violent thunderstorm which could successfully displace the heat.


	2. Holding Back The Tears

With the light of the moon in the back and standing in front of a front door, the boy rummaged out a key from his pocket and opened the door lock for it. As soon as a crack opened, he was immediately received with wild insults. Even if the boy was already used to it, he always shrank internally.

"You. …Accident! Come right here. Now." He was called an accident by his father instead of being called to his name, Gary, and quoted to him.

Without thinking about what his brother had done, he hurried up to meet his father. To let him wait was not exactly the smartest thing he could do at that moment. He had to stand up to him and do it without if and when. He had already received an accident description at the age of three or four years. Perhaps even earlier. Whenever he was so called, he always felt as if he had never been part of this family. Gary was also called only because he was never planned and therefore no a wish child. His existence was really due to an accident where his parents had not been careful when he was born.

Within a few seconds, Gary finally stepped under the stern eyes of his father. For a fraction of a second Gary dared to look him in his eyes, but turned his gaze back to the ground. If he had withstood his father's gaze at least for a second longer, he would have been impaled by the daggers which were rightly shooting him from his eyes. While his father was angry at him, Gary tried to ignore his words as he could. Just get in one ear and get out of the other again. But because of a slap in his face he succeeded only very rarely. As soon as his father had finished with the tirade of insults, he had already given him a slap in his face, which had already been properly washed. On this blow, Gary heard his father's haggard words more clearly than before, echoing through all the auditory canals. The last thing he knew about his tyrannical father was that he should go to bed quickly, since morning was the first day of school. 

Slipping and rubbing the damaged cheek, he left the living room until he took his feet in his hand and rushed up the stairs to his room. Having arrived in his scarcely available room, he was about to throw the door loudly into the lock. But if he did, his mother would be standing at the door shortly thereafter, moaning at him and he would get another slap. What Gary wanted to prevent. One slap at the day was enough for him. To become not a one, would be still the best. 

With the door behind him, he slowly sank to the ground until he came to sit. In the sitting position, he pulled his legs toward his upper body, encompassing them with both arms and his empty gaze was clouded by a singled tear. Softly sobbing, he wiped himself away from this one again and glanced at what he described as his room. However, his room was more like a storage room, than a normal children's or teenager's room as you actually knew. While there was an old folding bed in the corner, there was a desk with a simple stool in front of it. Under the bed were a few cartons, where the old clothes of his brother were kept. Even his only light source consisted only of a naked light bulb hanging over his bed. Although there was still a window, but this was unfortunately so high that you couldn’t really look out and it was not exactly great. But the sight of this misery was further strengthened by the flaking of the color and the non-existent decoration, such as posters, plants or the like. The whole was still topped with some items which was typical for a storage room and left the room thus even smaller than it already was. ...It was just depressing.

At some point, he went to bed, saddened, and stared at the ceiling, which he could not even guess in the dark until he finally fell asleep.


	3. You Always Wanted More Than Life

The next morning, when the sun had occupied her majestic place in the sky for some time, Gary awoke from a restless sleep and threw a tired glance at his seven-year-old watch. …Seven-thirty!

_\- Damn it. It’s already so late. -_

If he didn’t want to come too late, he had to hurry. It was true that the first lesson started in one and a half hours, but for the journey to his school he needed at least an hour by bicycle. ... And his bike was not exactly the newest model, and he liked to show up some quirks, which drove him mad again and made life difficult.

So Gary jumped out of his bed, pulled on some old clothes from his brother and washed himself on the fast way. With an outdated backpack in his hand, he hastened to leave the house without taking breakfast. Actually, he couldn’t care, because his parents didn’t give him what was proper to eat. In the end, he usually only defeated the remains. There he could still be glad that there was no dog in the household. To argue with a dog about the remains had something ironic, but he really didn’t want to go to such a humiliation. Not at all.

To get rid of this idea, he jammed his backpack between the luggage-rack and swung himself on the bike. As Gary went to school, he hoped that his bicycle would endure the long journey. In spite of these thoughts that circled in his head, Gary could turn off something with the help of the driving-wind and for a moment forget his problems. But what was very much to his displeasure was not denied him too long. Within a short time he was dragged back into the harsh and unloved reality, where he had no place in this world and was a no one.

After a beating lesson and fortunately without any significant incidents, Gary finally arrived at his school. He put his bike in a device foreseen for it and went to the school building with mixed feelings. Like all other first school days after the summer holidays, there was lively activity all over the school grounds. As well as before and inside the building. So Gary tried to fight through the crowds to get information, for example, where he spent the next school year in which classroom and what the timetable was. When all the necessary things were in his possession, he sought out his future classroom. He was repeatedly jostled or pushed on the way. So that he didn’t lose his new school things under his arms, he pressed them as hard to his body as he could. Since he was the biggest loser in the school anyway, he wanted to keep a little bit of dignity for himself.

Shortly after then, when he entered the classroom, he saw the reason why he always lost his last bit of dignity. His classmate Robert. Which’s of all but only simply Robbie was called. He always made fun of him from all his classmates and sometimes from the teachers, then at least verbally, to make him down. With this kind, he had already had a reputation as "the violent class clown" at the school. Since Gary was a light victim and did not even resist, Robbie had made him to his favorite victim. Every chance he got to crush him, he used shamelessly. Even if Gary was already lying on the ground, he simply continued and did not let him get to his breath. Silently, Gary let go of everything, trying to get through the school day somehow.

What should he do about it? While his parents had no interest in what he was leaving at school, his brother only laughed at him and said that he had his own fault. Not even his trust teacher showed him understanding of his dilemma. This was just because Gary made the school year somehow and that he got no big beating from Robbie. But what happened with Gary at home, he could only speculate. True, Gary had talked to the teacher of trust, but he had wrapped himself in silence and since then spoke no word to him. Not only because it was unpleasant to him, but also because he knew, that his trust teacher couldn’t help it. ...Why then still talk?

Cautiously, Gary looked around for a free seat and when he found a suitable one, he tried to get there without much attention. Even if Robbie stood all the time with his back to him, he had probably smelled his arrival. 

So he sniffed his nose briefly and wondered aloud: "Can it be that the wind has turned? ...Somehow, it mumbles like a garbage dump!"

To those words, Robbie turned around and his gaze fell on Gary.

"Hey, ...Mary! Did you spend your holidays at the homeless home again or did you try a failed lab test, where you were smaller instead of bigger?" Gary had to take the following spell and the laughter of the other classmates over him and showed Robbie no emotion of itself.

He was only to reach his future seat unscathed. But what was not denied him. As he descended the narrow passage to his chosen place, a leg was placed to him as if out of the blue and without a word of warning. Gary fell to the ground with a half-scream, trying to cushion his landing somehow with his hands. But then he slipped something away and so he lay in full length on the ground. At the sight Gary offered, the mocking laughter grew louder and Robbie asked with mocked concern whether he had hurt himself and would now run to his mother crying. Since Gary had shaved his hands on the impact and they were now burning hellishly, the mocking question went under him for the less beautiful loud laughter. When the pain wave came to an end, he fought his way up to all the fours and crawled, the rest of the way around to avoid further escapades. After Gary arrived at his chosen place, he freed himself from his back bag and placed it between the table and the heater. Before he straightened, he took out a writing block and a short pencil he needed for the lesson. With the things in one hand, he struggled to get on his two legs to be able to sit down again immediately.

Mentally, Gary was now sitting there, casting a wistful glance from the open window. In front of him lay a broad plain, where at the end he could see several rows of trees. The lush green of the crowns of the tree was brought to light by the higher position of the sun, and the light of the leaves could still be seen at this distance. Through the deep blue of the sky, the effect was amplified and made the world look beautiful and natural. This sight brought Gary to dream and wished nothing more than lead a normal life. A life where’s he had a loving family and friends, who were unconditionally behind him and so he could give his life a meaning. ...But that was just a dream and this would not be fulfilled in this life any more.


End file.
